Unexpected Doesn't Mean Unwanted
by Sunshine-M
Summary: After Season 5, Daryl and Carol have been together for a while when something unexpected happens. Fluff overdose. Caryl fic. No infringement meant, none of these characters are mine, sadly.


It happened in the most unexpected way, which was usually how those things truly happened. If you had asked any of them, nothing was different, nothing was changing, things were good and that was it. Since they had defeated Negan and his wolves, things had been quiet at the zone. It was all about surviving on a day to day basis, where the enemies were clearly defined, those who had risen from the dead. You didn't have to worry as much as you did before about what the new threat would be. Sure, it would come, but until then, they had been enjoying every second of that precious time.

It was as normal as it could be, when the disturbance happened. Carol was lying in bed, happily spent after she had woken up to Daryl playing with her hair. He was always so shy. He could be a beast, but unless he saw the same light in her eyes, he would be the smoothest and nicest suitor one could hope for. Playing with her hair had already been a big move for him, as he generally didn't like to touch her in a loving way if she was not awake. He understood the pain Ed had left behind, and always thought of ways to avoid it, even when she didn't. He had played with her hair, and she had laughed, before pulling him for a kiss, and things had gotten heated in the blink of an eye.

It had been perfect, as it always was. He had gotten up reluctantly after some cuddling, knowing Aaron was waiting for him and would be riding his ass if he was late. He had taken a shower, and he came back in the bedroom, to kiss her, making a joke about having broken her, as she had not moved since he had left.

She just felt languid and good, like her bones had melted and she didn't want them to grow back. She was just good. He sat next to her head, playing with her hair again. He gave her a kiss, before letting his fingers linger on the top of her breast.

"You make it hard to leave," he said.

"Pun intended?" She asked with a chuckle.

He didn't answer, just kissed her nipple and looking like it was a real pain to do so, he got up and winked at her, before leaving the bedroom.

She sighed and wondered if she should leave the bed. She knew she had to, but for a second or so, she entertained the thought of not moving and waiting for her lover to come back. He wouldn't have minded.

"Carol?" She heard on the other side of the room.

"Just a second!" She yelled, as she pulled up the sheet to cover her body.

Michonne waited for her to tell her she could enter, and she said:

"Aaron and Daryl are about to leave, but Aaron is making a fuss. It's the sanitary run today, and you didn't fill out the sheet saying if you needed feminine hygiene products," The woman said making air quotes as she used the words Aaron had.

Carol had to laugh, and said:

"I don't need anything. Daryl filled out the sheet for the both of us, I used his sheet to ask for shampoo and soap."

"Ok, cool. I'll tell them it was not a mistake and they can go," Michonne said.

"Thanks, 'Chonne," Carol yelled as the woman left to tell the guys what they wanted to know.

Carol kept on chuckling, thinking of the near medical terminology used to talk about tampons and pads.

She got up finally, hating doing so but knowing everyone had to pull their weight day after day. She went into the bathroom, stretching and enjoying her nakedness. She had never been prudish but years with Ed had left her thinking for a long time that there was something wrong about being in your birthday suit.

She showered quickly, washing Daryl's scent off her skin, which made her sad, but she knew it was but a matter of time until he was on her skin again. She dried and opened the cupboard where they kept the toiletries. She found herself staring when she looked at the two unopened boxes of tampons. She found herself staring at her reflection in the mirror as she racked her brain to remember when she finished the previous box. She remembered Daryl and Aaron going on such a run a couple of weeks before and she recalled she hadn't needed anything then. She hadn't needed anything now.

When was the last time she had had her period?

It had surprised her when she had gotten it back almost a year ago, when they had been at the prison. For years, around Ed, her body had stopped menstruating, out of fear, maybe out of self-preservation. She had thought it had been a very early onset of menopause and had taken a few minutes to mourn her fertility, before going back to playing her part, knowing Ed would be violent if she showed any sign of sadness or whatever. When she had put away the toiletries in a cupboard, she finally told him about this new evolution, and while he had called her defective, as he had lost his job and money had become tighter and tighter, he used to joke during poker nights to his friend about never having to worry about getting a vasectomy. It was of course a stab to her heart, but he didn't care. He was just happy this was one less thing he had to worry about, if one could pretend he had ever worried at all.

When they had been at the prison, she had woken up one day, feeling a pain she had thought would never be part of her life anymore, and she had found herself asking Maggie while blushing if she could spare her a tampon or pad, as she hadn't asked for her share during the past runs. She had worried about what it meant, and had had a discussion with Hershel about what was happening, during which the wise man had barely alluded to the abuse she had suffered yet had managed to let her know that perhaps it had been God or maybe just her body but what was lost was found again as she was now safe from her previous devil.

She looked again at the unopened boxes, and searched her brain for her last use of those.

Then she found herself looking at her breasts in the mirror. The areolas, she noticed, were slightly darker. She looked at her face, staring into her own eyes, bent over the sink and looked for clues. She wouldn't say there was an aura or an air about her, but she looked healthy, perhaps more than usual.

She thought back at the last times she and Daryl had been intimate, and she realized that it had been a lot those past weeks. She had initiated it more often than he had, though he had never followed her lead begrudgingly. When she had been pregnant with Sophia, her libido had been wild, but she hadn't let it express itself, as Ed had already shown his true colors and she had no desire for him. Yet, lately with Daryl…

She sat down on the toilet, as she had no choice but to come to terms with everything she was putting together. She was pregnant. Holy hell, she really was pregnant.

She heard someone yell her name, and realize that she was late for her work assignment. She got dressed in a hurry, and went to join the cooking crew.

She was thankful for the plainness of her job; as they had to feed the crowd of people who worked and the children, they never did anything fancy, and doing something she could do with her eyes closed was good.

She was pregnant.

She would need to see if there were tests around, she thought, just in case she was getting menopause and not a baby. She didn't feel hot flashes or anything, and she felt healthier than ever, but you could be deceived, you always could be deceived.

If she was pregnant though, as she somehow felt was the case, then what? She was Carol Peletier here, and the thought of bringing to life another Peletier baby made her want to scream. Ed was dead, he shouldn't get to claim her children when he was gone.

What would Daryl say? They had never discussed children. He knew she was still menstruating, and he had to know it meant she still had a chance to get with child, but they had never sat down and discussed what ifs. It felt like a discussion a couple should have, especially in this apocalypse, but they hadn't. They had gotten together shortly after Pete's death, but it had been a long way in making. When they had told their group they were an item, people had been more amazed they hadn't crossed that bridge sooner more than they had been about the actual news.

A Dixon baby, it would be a Dixon baby. That was if Daryl was willing.

She knew he had fallen in love with her independently of her capacity to carry children, that it had been about her soul and who she was, the same way she'd fallen in love with his spirit and who he truly was at heart, whether he let people see it or not. She knew he was wonderful with kids, as Judith would attest, cherishing her uncle Daryl.

What if he only wanted to be Uncle Daryl, and not Daddy?

She forced herself to focus on the tasks she had to take care of, give them her all. She cleared her head of all those thoughts, as nothing could be done one way or another, at least not in the next few minutes.

She helped serve the meal, and sneaked out to the infirmary, where Dr. Cloyd was going over the stocks. When Carol asked her if she had a pregnancy test on hand, the doctor didn't look phased, and went to look for the test. She explained she had only a couple of them, but that she had the materials to run a blood test if they were to run out. The doctor was rambling, passively, not engaging her in the subject yet not thrusting her out of it, as she seemed to have noticed that Carol needed to process things. Dr. Cloyd handed over the test, and wished Carol she would get the result she was hoping for.

Carol hid it under her vest and went back to her bedroom. Knowing time would not change the results or give her the reassurance she needed, she used the test and waited for the results. When she saw the plus sign, she didn't feel relief or additional fear, it was just confirmation of something she had known ever since that morning.

Oh God. Oh God, she thought.

She hated that she had been given the afternoon off, as she needed something to do. Michonne saw her in the house, and seemed to sense her inner turmoil, but she said nothing. Carol knew she could talk to her, but it didn't feel right. There was one person and one person only she should be talking about this to.

Fucking run… She had no idea when he would be back. The more time went by, the further the guys needed to go, as they had rummaged through everything in the close perimeter. For all she knew, they could be gone for days.

That night, when Carl handed her Judith out of habit, Carol looked at the toddler who was becoming a little girl so fast, and she wondered if they would have one of their own soon. She wondered if she would still know how to take care of a baby. Sure, she had known what to do when Judith had been born, but she hadn't been "hers". She had been a baby and as a mother, she had done what she could to help the motherless child.

But one of hers? A baby of her own? She wondered, pained by the memories of Sophia's sad life. She had deserved so much better. What life would this child have?

Daryl didn't come back that night, nor the following day. Carol was trying to push it from her mind until he was there, as it was not just her, or she hoped it wouldn't be.

That night, she was woken up when she felt him slide into bed next to her. She burrowed into his arms, having missed him, and just glad that he was there, in one piece, safe and sound. She let him lull her to sleep, and fell into slumber.

When she woke up, he was gone, and she felt disappointed. Then again, maybe it was better, she thought, as it was giving her an opportunity to think about how she would tell him.

"How you'll tell me what?" He said behind her, surprising the hell out of her.

Her hand had gone to her stomach, instinctively, and she realized she must have spoken out loud.

He was bringing two cups, and she knew one would be some coffee for him and the other would be tea for her. He came to the bed and put the two cups on the night stand, before sitting on the bed, as she did the same.

"So, tell me what?" He asked again.

She wanted to kiss him, no matter what news she had to tell him, and no matter how he would or could react. She just wanted to kiss him senseless. She had missed him so much.

"Stop looking at me like I'm dinner. You can have a piece of me later."

She looked, blushing slightly.

She supposed there was not a hundred ways to tell it, and even if she try to circumvent the news, he would call her on what she was doing.

"I am pregnant," She said in a breath.

He took his cup, awfully quietly, and took a sip of his coffee. She felt fear start to creep in, and he seemed to sense it, putting a hand on hers, and putting down his cup.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yes, of course. Aren't you surprised?" She asked, going for the lighter version of everything he could be feeling

"I didn't know for sure, but I had an inkling."

"You could have said something!" She exclaimed, slapping his thigh and he pretended to be hurt.

"What if you weren't? I didn't… I didn't know how you would react, if you were, if you weren't, and I didn't want… to make you sad if…"

"You're still here," she said suddenly, as it struck her.

He looked at her with his best "duh" expression.

"No, I mean, you're still here. You're talking about it with me. When I told Ed… He ran. Away from me and away from the situation. He left for two whole days before we could finish having this conversation."

"I'm not Ed."

"I know you're not," she said, and she couldn't help herself, she planted a kiss on his jaw.

"You're just so chill…" She said.

"I had suspicions but it's not my body so…"

"But it's your kid."

He chuckled almost nervously and said:

"I know. I hoped it would be."

And she wondered what he meant. He knew he was the only man in her life, was he saying he hoped she had been with child?

"I swear, getting you to open up is like trying to get a rock to bleed," she said.

"What do you want me to say? M'not surprised. We've been fucking, and we've never used condoms. We never counted the days of your cycle, as some do, or any of the things people do. We knew it could happen. Or I did."

She wanted to cuddle in his arms again, hearing what he wasn't saying. He hadn't forced fate, he had known that such a thing could happen, and he had been fine with it. Maybe they had never had the discussion about contraception because he had not been opposed to being a dad, period, but he hadn't been sure how she felt about being a mother again. He seemed to be also keenly aware that while he had thought about this scenario, it may not have entered her mind. He was always too shy, too insecure even, to bring up relationship issues. He had once told her he had never had any meaningful relationships and he didn't want to blow something that was working so well by showing his ignorance of these things.

"And you're okay with it?"

"If you are, I am."

He always put her first, even when she was asking about his feelings.

"There's just one problem, but we can fix it."

She looked at him, wondering what was coming next. He was okay with her being pregnant, which meant he was okay with being a dad. She felt like she had it all.

"That's my kid, in there," he said, putting his hand on her stomach, and she pressed it there even if they couldn't feel anything yet. "But you're Carol Peletier. Peletier is Ed's name. I would like it very much, if you agreed to start using again your maiden name, and the baby wore it. Even better, you could become a Dixon, and the baby would be too…"

He didn't look at her, looked at their hands on her stomach, and she forced him to look up so he could see her smile.

"I was Carol Scott a thousand years ago, and I was Carol Peletier up until today. I'd like it very much if I could try being Carol Dixon as we enter this new phase in our lives."

He smiled at her shyly, and she thought that they were overdue for a kiss.

So she went in and kissed him. He smiled against her mouth, and she felt overjoyed.

They rested their foreheads together, trying to digest everything they had just said and decided.

"Coffee is going to be cold," she told him.

"Is tea still ok? Or do you feel sick?"

"Nope, no nausea for me. We need to go see Dr. Cloyd to get a due date and everything."

He nodded, and said:

"M'gonna be a dad!"

She chuckled and asked:

"You only just got that part?"

He didn't take offence of her jibe, and kissed her.

"You'll be a wonderful dad," she told him when they parted.

"I'll try my best. That's all a kid can ask for," he whispered, and she pressed his hand knowing he was thinking of his own upbringing.

Whatever would come next, they would be ready she thought. They had each other, and the baby would have them.

"Fucking miracle," She said.

He nodded in agreement as she cuddled up next to him his hand slowing caressing her stomach. Their beverages soon turned cold as he softly kissed her and showed her how truly happy he was and she returned the favor three fold.


End file.
